I am here, AFRICA, SOUTH AFRICA, CAPE TOWN to be exact! I made it.
My Aunt and Uncle have been beyond amazing in welcoming me, making me feel at home, taking care of me, feeding me delicious food, introducing me to friends and family and also allowing me time and space to adjust and get acquainted to my new life here. I have the sweetest little "gecko cottage" (Kris' name for my guesthouse living quarters) that they have done a great job of fixing up. I feel so incredibly lucky to be here with family. For sure I could not of done it otherwise.
And now. . . for the real stuff: today was my introduction to Nyanga township where I will be doing my art therapy work. Nyanga is both the oldest, poorest and most dangerous township in Cape Town. The Community Arts Therapy Programme has been operating out of a shipping container on St. Andrew's primary school grounds in Nyanga for the last 12 years and today I caught my first glimpse of the township life. I can not begin to express how humbled I am at this very moment. No amount of reading or movies or life-experience or past international volunteer work or travel to impoverished third world countries or conversations or psycing of oneself up can truly prepare you for the reality of what this work and world looks like. It just doesn't and I knew that coming into this. But to experience it, witness it through my work on a daily basis is entirely different and it's going to take some serious time, space and patience to adjust.
I am currently having an inner struggle with "how much is too much" to share in this blog. While I want to be honest in sharing my experiences of what working in the Nyanga township is all about, I also don't want to spend too much time writing about the poverty, crime, and violence that exists. . . you know, all the good old media-worthy "shock-value" type stuff. I also don't want to paint the wrong or an "ugly" picture of what life is like in South Africa or Cape Town, which might I add is an incredibly dynamic, breathtaking and amazing city. And so, it is for all these reasons mentioned that I don't think I will go into the intense details about day 1 because, well it was just a day, the first day at that. I am still terribly jet-lagged, and am also processing and taking it all in.
I will say that it was beyond eye-opening and on many levels totally heartbreaking. However, there is also so much beauty to bear witness too and precious moments to cherish that certainly counteract the heaviness, and that is the gift that I'm taking with me today.
And so as a good reminder to myself of what and why I am here, I will leave you with those sweet moments in time: A young woman, a mother, HIV+, with her sweet chattering toddler at her feet, playing with Mum's shoelaces, delicately weaves her needle in and out of felt, beading a brilliant pink protea (the South African national flower) while humming the sweetest song in xhosa. A homeade birthday cake decorated with a huge car on a road, complete with bridge. He turned 8 and although he doesn't smile at all, his 8 little buddies laugh and sing and clap "happy birthday" in the xhosa language and then "how old are you now, how old are you now," in English. And at last when he blew out the candles. . . a single smile, but just the one (I truly hope his wish comes true). A tour of the school's community garden that I will be helping and working in when not running art therapy groups and my utter amazement that you can grow anything "in sand" as opposed to rich dirt/soil. I've never seen such healthy looking beets before, really. And the little garden fences made out of upside down wine bottles stuck in the ground are awesome (I'm definitely going to take that idea home with me). Tell ya what, South Africans really know how to turn recycling into amazing art and crafts.
In the following weeks I will train more and have my first day at the Red Cross Children's hospital burn unit which I'm sure will be equally if not more shocking and challenging. Stay tuned. . .
The city and surrounding area of Cape Town is quite stunning. The beaches and coastline in particular are incredibly beautiful (as you'll gather from the FB photos, if you peep them), loving the exotic wildlife (to me that is), and there's no shortage of fun tourist stuff to do during the weekends and holidays. My Aunt Kris had a bit of free time in between working on movies so she spent a couple days driving me up and down the coastline. Chapmans Peak drive took us from one charming beach town to the next. And I loved that in a matter of minutes you can go from viewing the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean and am excited to swim in both this summer, although I hear the Indian is relatively warmer.
That about wraps up week 1, now to catch up on a post for weeks 2 and 3, 4 and 5. . .
